Over the past week or so, rumours that big changes are afoot at Williams have been ramping up. Last week when I saw that a German website had written about this, I prepared a simple but telling graph looking at the form of Williams over the years. But I refrained from publishing it in case […]
Does Paul di Resta deserve to be in F1?
Let me start off by pointing out that I would really like to see Paul di Resta do well in F1. It is always good to see fresh blood and I am a big fan of his cousin, Dario Franchitti. But I have found Paul di Resta’s route into F1 curious. Why does Paul di […]
What went wrong with Williams?
I’ll be upfront here. While many like Williams, with their “plucky underdog” status and stridently independent approach, they have never been my among my favourite teams. To the extent that I have ever liked them, it has been as the anti-Ferrari. In other words, I like them about as much as I like McLaren, which […]
The watering down of Formula 1
This week Ferrari caused a ripple when it published a provocative article on its blog, The Horse Whisperer. The final paragraph is worth quoting in full, not only because it makes an interesting point, but because it elegantly quotes Adam Smith. (Motorsport, economics and my home town of Kirkcaldy all in one little paragraph!) This […]
2009 driver rankings: #25-#11
25. Nelsinho Piquet I don’t think there is much need to justify why I have placed Piquet at the bottom of the list. Suffice it to say that I hope he never races competitively again. 24. Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais spent the 2008 season explaining that we should wait to judge him until the return […]
Au revoir Renault?
On top of the exits of Bridgestone and Toyota came news that Renault had held an emergency board meeting to discuss their future in Formula 1. According to Andrew Benson at the BBC: The French car company was considering whether to remain in the sport with its own team, switch to simply being an engine […]
Sayonara Toyota
The day after Bridgestone announced that they would be leaving Formula 1, it emerged that Toyota were poised to do the same. This was not as much of a shock as Bridgestone’s exit, but it is nonetheless major news. Toyota are the third major manufacturer to leave F1 in just twelve months, and now rumours […]
My name is Duncan, and I am a motorsport fan
This the accompanying article to my contribution to this week’s edition of The Pod Delusion. Here you can find videos and links if you want to delve further into the topic. As you may guess from the title, this article is about motorsport. I do not normally write about motorsport on this website. That is […]
Crikeynen! Kimi wins again at last
What a grand prix weekend that was. It just goes to show you what a decent circuit can do for racing. Boy, can Spa do it for racing. It also clearly does it for Kimi Räikkönen, who is always mesmerising in this most inspirational of settings. Räikkönen confuses people a lot of the time with […]
Ruby on Rails!
This year’s European Grand Prix was not the best race we’ve seen so far this year — but at least it wasn’t the utter snoozer we had last year. There are at least a few interesting talking points. First, of course, is the performance of Rubens Barrichello, which was truly masterful. For once, the most […]